Just wondering if you have any more ideas or suggestions of what to do or test or investigate next? I have had 3 transfers (1st was a fresh transfer of a D5 AA blast, 2nd was an FET with a D5 BB blast, and 3rd was anither FET double transfer of both our last embryos, a D5 BB and D6 BB blastocysts).. all of which have been BFP. I am just wondering, are they all poor embyros because they are untested? or is it something to do with my uterine receptivity? I am 34 and husband is 37. Reason for infertility is due to male factor only. Would appreciate all advise and suggestions. Thank you.
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RyuSai
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It's so hard to know why implantation isn't happening. There could be lots of different reasons. Have you spoken to your consultant about it?
PGT-A testing can be helpful to see if this is the issue. It could be your window of implantation although or it could be your immune system. You might have an imbalance of bacteria in your uterus or maybe something completely different.
Do you have any frozen embryos left / will you do another egg collection? If you are going to do another egg collection I would look at supplements / nutrition before you do that. Get your husband on proxseed to help with sperm quality. Start taking Ubiquinol and NAC yourself and lots of antioxidents.
Maybe then it would be worth testing any embryos created. Personally for me, the issue was my immune system which was over active (natural killer cells) so they had to be suppressed in order for the embryo to implant.
The issue is you can spend a fortune on these "add-on" tests and a lot of them don't have much background research to say they work - generally anecdotal... so it's really up to you to do some reading and see if any of them resonate with you.
I would have a chat with your consultant and see what they say / suggest.
Thank you for your reply. And yes, sorry, I meant BFN..
I have just found out the BFN today and we are still to schedule for a consultation review with the Consultant, so I wanted to gather advises for questions to ask.
These were our last embryos so we will have to do another egg collection cycle. We are also considering PGT-A testing but wanted to see if there might be anything else that can be tested to avoid wasting good embryos if the problem is something else.
It may be a good idea to look into testing NK cells testing or uetrine biopsy. I will have a chat with our consultant about this and just hope we can find out the reason and get a solution for it.
Have a look at my profile and see what tests I did - essentially ERA / NK cells and PGT-A were what I think helped us in the end (we were lucky with our 6th transfer).
If you have a look at the HFEA website it will tell you all the tests that you can have done - then you can go in to your follow up armed with lots of info.
My clinic were sick of my by the end as I just kept on at them to try new things. xxx
Thank you - I honestly did think we would get there in the end - I was very determined which is why I think I p****d off my clinic so much - you really do have to advocate for yourself. Especially if you're paying for it too!
This forum is full of people who had success after very complex journeys - so I do honestly think for the most part it will happen. It just depends how far you are willing to push. For some, its just too hard.
Sending lots of love - my inbox is always open if you want to chat xx
I have just read your Bio in full. What a journey! I admire your energy and pray for your new treatment!
I have a question about the ERA test. You had one done in Nov 2020. Did you use that data for timing all of your fresh and frozen transfers from your FET#5 onwards? If your FET#6 was guided by your 2020 ERA data, do you mind to share the details of the protocol? Have you ever needed to re-do the ERA test? I feel an ERA result may not be valid forever.
My other question is about blood clotting. What tests have you done? Although without any clotting issues or symptoms, my daughter has been tested for most of the common genes and clotting profiles. They all came back as normal. However, a recent new type of test indicated she has PAI-I 4G/4G genotype which is associated with increased risk of blood clot. She is asking her consultant whether to add Clexane for her next FET.
Yes I did use the same data for every transfer since. I also read somewhere that the timing can change but my consultant poo-pooed that (although obviously offered to do it again at a staggering cost)...
I think opinion is divided but I feel mine must still be the same as we had implantation in 2024....
I never had any clotting tests done, my clinic always gave clexane as standard. So I couldn't tell you if it truly helped or not. I would give it a go if it's being offered. It can't hurt to try especially if there is a possibility.
Has she had her NK Cells tested? This was a big help for me.
I did a few extra investigations after our failed transfers. My consultant suggested them in our follow up call.I did the ERA test which checks when you are most receptive to transfer, and also for any infections in the womb.
I also did the saline tests which check your uterus cavity/fallopian tubes etc.
I also did some immune testing. There is a theory about immune 'killer cells' attacking the embroyos - I think the evidence is less clear on that though. We went to a separate specialist consultant for this.
So going into this cycle, I felt I'd done everything I could. Ultimately the transfer bit is a black box, and who knows what is going on!
Thank you for all of these info. I will definiteky look into different investigations just so I can tick the boxes. Hopefully it will answer our "whys" and can help with creating solutions fo r our next cycle.
Sending u lots of love and baby dusts! crossing all fingers and toes xx
Hiya, I've had 3 failed, no positives at all. My clinic has a protocol of doing a blood test to see if there's any issues with my womb. They said 99% of the time it's the embryo. My results came back and my blood is clotting which is preventing implantation from happening, so I've got to have another blood test in 8 weeks to see if the result comes back the same or not x
Hi, I had 4 failed transfers before my 5th worked. My clinic were rubbish as suggesting reasons or tests. I was also male factor only. I finally moved clinic who suggested PGTA which we did and the first of those worked! I also took ubiquinol to help egg quality and did an at home microbiome test which showed I was low on good bacteria so took probiotics. Not sure which combo finally worked.
After a number of rounds of failed transfers we looked at additional investigations focused on implantation failure, so how receptive your uterus is, an immune factors. For that we did uterine receptivity testing which looks at natural killer cells profile in your uterus, what does it look low compared to where you are in your cycle. Looks up deft test my Professor Brosens, who runs it in Coventry. It’s a specialised as part of a research team so it’s not one of your typical add ons you’ll see at other clinics. You can also look at your immunity through your blood profile. All our doctors dismissed the microbiome testing stuff in our case. I just regularly take vaginal probiotics and recently had a v. Microbiome test and all looked good. However, you could be recommended a thorough microbiome testing based on your personal profile. A lot of this is not HEFA approved because it’s so hard to get the evidence but our doctors have said there are two camps - those who prescribe in this all this stuff and those who don’t. For us, we felt strongly about investigating the NK activity and immune side of things due to a previous diagnosis of ulcerative colitis of it so went with it.
The other part of the puzzle in failed implantations is the embryo - so PGTA testing. We’ve not done that yet.
Have you had a thrombotic risk profile test? Have you had a natural killer cells test? Have you had the Emma/Alice test? Depending on what those reveal you might need to have low dose heparin injections and/or steroids and/or intra-lipid infusions after embryo transfer (or in the case or intra-lipids before and after embryo transfer) to provide extra support. I am not sure what extra support is given with a positive for the Emma/Alice test as mine was negative. I wish I had had all these tests earlier as I feel I may have lost valuable embryos as a result of them just believing anything and everything was down to me being over 40. Eventually it took me asking my consultant, "Well what tests would you do if I was 25 and having these implantation failures" and when he told me, I said "right I'll have them then" I was then proved right to have insisted on them as I was MTFHR positive and had a high level of natural killer cells even if I effectively "wasted" a lot of money on the Emma/Alice test because it turned out to be negative for me. They didn't test me until I had lost 6 embryos across 3 transfers. I was only able to implement all the low dose heparin and steroids and intra-lipid infusions for my last attempt which was one embryo and was sadly a BFN. So if I can suggest anything, it would be ask for the tests or treatments and insist on them! Wishing you all the best with it Xxx
Hi, I had 4 failed transfers - the last 2 of those being ‘outstanding’ embryos from donor eggs and everything always looked good with my lining. So I did the EMA, Alice and ERA test. It said I had zero good bacteria and I needed LOADS of probiotics to reestablish this. Crucially it said that my lining was ‘pre receptive’ on day 6 of progesterone and suggested I needed another 30 hours of progesterone before transfer. My clinic did day 6 transfers as standard - 120 hours on progesterone. Apparently this is the average for a woman’s lining to become ‘receptive’ but not all women are average - some need less time and some need more. The ERA suggested 150 hours of progesterone for me. So my clinic timed this exactly and I had my 5th and final embryo transferred on day 7 of progesterone. BFP! And she is now 4 months and asleep on me.
So the biopsy did give me my answers and it worked when I thought it never would! I had to ask for it though. Which is crazy. They agreed straight away but my consultant said that they don’t suggest it as there’s not been the research to prove it works. Anyway, it worked for me! x
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